Pet waste disposal is a serious problem to the average pet-owner, with the result that a great deal of ingenuity has gone into efforts to find some easy and sanitary solution to the problem. Several families of solutions are apparent after searches in the technological field.
The items in the first family of patents generally have both some sort of impact device for physically attacking the problem and water for flushing it away. However, not one of these devices appears to utilize the energy of the water flow or of an engine/motor to power the impact devices they teach. They further lack turbines, rotary chopping blades, clean and dirty compartments, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,108 issued to MITCHELL on Sep. 5, 1989 for ANIMAL EXCREMENT DISSOLVER has a cowl and spray head, and within the cowl a group of spikes which stick straight down, bat as noted, lacks water power to the spikes, lacks rotary blades, turbine, clean compartment and so on.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,937 issued to inventor MILLER on Jul. 13, 1976 for DROPPING DISPOSING teaches a device with rotating blades but the blades are NOT cutting blades, rather, they are used only to scatter the water from the hose as it comes into the device. Interestingly, this device also has an exterior compartment full of water which appears to be used for weight only. This device lacks CUTTING blades, electrical, gasoline or water power, a turbine, etc. Note that the water hits the scattering blades and they spin, however, this does not appear to drive any cutting device (there is no cutting device).
U.S. Pat. No. 3,817,194 issued to SEEBALD on Jun. 18, 1974 for PORTABLE UTILITY DEVICE FOR FLUID PROCESSING OF DEMETRIUS MATERIAL teaches another manual cutting device (a grid work at the very bottom) with a sprinkler head above it. Once again, the shredding device is not driven by water, gas or electrical power, there is no power turbine, and so on.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,408. issued to ZIMMERMAN on Aug. 21, 1973 for HYDRO-DISINTEGRATOR teaches another such device with spikes for the impact/cutting device, and once again the device is not water powered, lacks a power turbine, motor or water, a clean compartment for a turbine, and so on.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,504 issued to SEEBALD on Aug. I, 1972 for MULTI-PURPOSE UTILITY DEVICE teaches a kind of cart with wheels that the user pushes along. It has sprayers on the bottom and another manual impact device with spikes, etc. This is the final patent in the first group of patents which have both sprayers AND some type of manual impact device.
The second broad group of patents is fairly numerous. These are all inventions which attempted to solve the pet waste disposal problem with water jets or sprinkler heads in some sort of device, but which did not in fact use ANY form of impact device, nor blades, spikes, etc. U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,362 to REED on Jun. 20, 2000 for PORTABLE FECES DISPERSAL DEVICE is different in teaching a device with it's own water supply and a shoulder strap as well. The limited capacity of this device reduces its utility.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,969 issued to MENDENHALL ET AL on Jun. 28, 1994 for PROCESS AND MECHANISM FOR REDUCTION, LIQUEFYING AND ELIMINATION OF BACK YARD WASTE at first glance contains whisks or blades of some type, projecting down into a pile of waste in the main body of the device. However, these are actually depictions of the jets of water streaming from the spray head above: there are no impact devices in this invention. In addition, it is a stationary installation into which pet waste is introduced, and thus teaches away from the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,131 issued to ROBINSON on Sep. 18, 1990 for ANIMAL WASTE FLUSHING ASSEMBLY at least teaches a dome which goes over the wastes, and water jets fed by something like a garden hose. However, the wastes are flushed sideways out of the enclosure and there are no chopping elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,380 issued to SHERIFF on May 17, 1988 for ANIMAL FECES DISPOSAL APPARATUS is more akin to the first group of patents in that it has both a spray head fed by a domestic water supply, and it has a certain limited ability to mash or chop up the wastes by means of a heavy mesh screen across the bottom. Whether it is in the first group or the second group, it lacks blades, a turbine, power, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,971 to PAJEVIC on Dec. 4, 1984 for LIQUID SPRAYER is another one with a small self contained water supply and a limited effectiveness as a result. It has no impact/chopping devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,498 issued to CLEMENTS and dated Feb. 21, 1984 for an invention entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISPOSING OF ANIMAL WASTE has had associated with it a probably erroneous set of diagrams which are for some type of gimbal device. Regardless, reading of the text of the application makes it plain that water alone is used, and is used in a water tight container. Thus this device is also is either not relevant to patentability or only dubiously relevant.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,040 to an inventor named LAZAR and issued Nov. 24, 1981 for the WATER JET CLEANING DEVICE is visually similar to your device in overall layout but once again, lacks water power, choppers, turbines, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,770,204 to SCHUSTER on Nov. 6, 1973 for CLEANING AND REMOVAL DEVICE, the last item in the second group, is a hand held and fairly short device with an interesting valve arrangement and a rubber plunger cup. As with other patents in the second group, it lacks the distinctive features of the invention: water driven turbines powering rotary blades, etc.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,415 to TORRANCE-CASTANZE ET AL on Mar. 20, 2001 for DIRECT DRIVE WATER-DRIVEN ROTARY TOOL is an example of the many turbines which may be found in the patent database, but in fields unrelated to pet waste handling and disposal. The present applicant does not claim the invention of the turbine.
In general, most devices are used to handle the pet wastes, for example to place the wastes into a bag. It would be preferable to provide a device which eliminates the wastes without bagging, handling or other manipulation.